RCS - BioMed X Institute - BioMed X & Merck Continue Oncology Collaboration

Merck & CoAnnouncement

04/04/2023 11:15

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RNS Number : 1839V  BioMed X Institute  04 April 2023

 BioMed X and Merck Expand Collaboration Aiming to Leverage Cancer-Specific
Vulnerabilities for Targeted Therapies

After successfully completing a project in RNA splicing in cancer this
January, BioMed X and Merck continue their oncology collaboration to explore
tumor immunogenicity enhancers.

HEIDLEBERG, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / April 4, 2023 / BioMed X, an independent
biomedical research institute, announces the start of its new research project
- "New Strategies to Enhance the Immunogenicity of Tumors" - in collaboration
with Merck. The focus of this new research group will be to develop novel
approaches for enhancing tumor immunogenicity to broaden the population of
patients who could benefit from cancer immunotherapy.

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"What if we could overcome the immunosuppressive microenvironment of solid
tumors with a novel targeted approach?" asks Dr. Christian Tidona, Founder
and Managing Director of the BioMed X Institute. "This call for application is
inviting original research proposals that explore new ways to enhance the
immunogenicity of tumors and thus boost the efficacy of immune checkpoint
inhibitors," explains Dr. Tidona.

A high mutational burden, as well as aberrant mRNA splicing, are sources of
neoantigens: unique antigens presented by tumor cells capable of eliciting an
effective anti-tumor immune response. The most recently completed BioMed X
project was also a Merck collaboration investigating RNA splicing patterns in
cancer. "Using a new bioinformatic approach, we were able to query splicing
variants that are unique to certain cancers," said Dr. Alexandra
Duarte, former group leader at the BioMed X Institute. "Such splicing
abnormalities can shape the complex pathophysiology of cancer cells, including
through the expression of immunogenic neoantigens," added Dr. Duarte, now a
Senior Scientist in the Department of mRNA Cancer Immunotherapies of Prof. Dr.
Ugur Sahin at HI-TRON in Mainz, Germany.

The new project launched today, marking the tenth joint research group between
the two partners, expands this line of research by targeting tumor-specific
DNA Damage Repair (DDR) mechanisms or exploiting tumor-intrinsic DDR defects
to increase the tumor mutational burden and immunogenicity. Researchers who
are interested in becoming part of this new BioMed X research team in
Heidelberg are invited to respond to this international call for application
by submitting a project proposal via the BioMed X Career Space at
https://career.bio.mx/call/2023-BMX-C01 before May 28, 2023.

About BioMed X

BioMed X is an independent research institute located on the campus of the
University of Heidelberg in Germany, with a worldwide network of partner
locations. Together with our partners, we identify big biomedical research
challenges and provide creative solutions by combining global crowdsourcing
with local incubation of the world's brightest early-career research talents.
Each of the highly diverse research teams at BioMed X has access to
state-of-the-art research infrastructure and is continuously guided by
experienced mentors from academia and industry. At BioMed X, we combine the
best of two worlds - academia and industry - and enable breakthrough
innovation by making biomedical research more efficient, more agile, and more
fun.

Contact Information

Flavia-Bianca Cristian

Recruiting & Communications Manager
fbc@bio.mx (mailto:fbc@bio.mx)

+49 6221 426 11 706

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SOURCE: BioMed X Institute

 

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